Much controversy has surrounded the new gesture navigation in Android Q. While some people love it, others prefer the old three-button layout (or depend on it due to impairments), and some even prefer Pie's two-button navigation. Google put a lot of thought into creating the new system, working together with OEMs, and is confident that its solution is the best. The company goes to great lengths to prove this with some statistics published in a blog post on Thursday.
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Google decided to introduce a new version of gesture navigation in Android Q, which is an excellent idea. The 2-button gesture nav design from Pie was, let's face it, terrible. The new full gesture navigation system in Q has some good ideas, but the back gesture is a mess. Google's latest attempt to fix that in Beta 6 isn't going to be enough.
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We're in the endgame now... for Android Q. The fifth beta release came out last month, but Google wanted to squeeze in one last update before the finished product. Android Q Beta 6 is now rolling out to Pixels in the beta OTA program, and flashable images should be available shortly.
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Being an early adopter means accepting the inevitable bugs and issues that accompany the experience. For those that jumped on the Android Q Developer Previews, that meant a whole pile of app issues and incompatibilities as developers worked out the kinks associated with the updated platform. But Pokémon Go users can breathe a sigh of relief, as the latest update of the augmented reality game works with Android Q.
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Participating in the latest betas is always a fun, but not risk-free endeavor. You get to try out things before anyone else and observe how a software evolves before it's released to the public. Android Q's gestures, for example, have seen several iterations across beta versions and now the most recent gestures are making their way to the Nokia 8.1 with the latest Beta 5.
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Google's efforts to bring RCS to the world haven't been as inspiring as many of us had hoped, largely due to slow adoption by carriers and some self-serving behavior on the part of certain OEMs (cough). However, some of this can also be attributed to limits in Android itself. To use RCS today, you have no choice in app selection — you're stuck using apps provided by your phone's OEM, be it Google, Samsung, LG, or another partner. Earlier this year, it looked like Google had added code to Android Q that would enable third party apps to support RCS, but that was disputed shortly after.
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If you're working on any kind of software that utilizes facial recognition — a secure Face ID camera system for a phone is just one example that comes to mind — you need a good amount of data in order to train the AI that powers it. Google isn't exactly new to the data collection game, but you might be surprised to learn that it's been doing so via such an old-fashioned method.
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Perhaps the most drastic change announced for Android Q was Scoped Storage, which changes file management on Android by limiting which folders apps can access. After complaints from developers that they wouldn't be able to update their apps in time for Q, Google said it wouldn't make Scoped Storage a requirement until Android R, but well-known file manager Solid Explorer has just added support anyway.
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The XDA forums are the capitol of all Android root/ROM development efforts these days, and from its multitudes of developers and endless pages of posts come most of the homebrew software that provides us with root access, liberates draconian device restrictions, and keeps older phones ticking. Android enthusiasts aren't the only ones making use of the software there, though. Turkish OEM General Mobile recently rolled out its own Android Q beta program for two of its phones even though it isn't among the manufacturers Google lists as participating in these early Q tests. It turns out, that's because General Mobile's Android Q beta is merely a lightly-tweaked ripoff of an unofficial GSI from XDA's forums.
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OnePlus has released the third version of its Android Q Developer Preview simultaneously for OnePlus 6, 6T, 7, and 7 Pro users, bringing update pulses together for the first time. The program's latest refreshes come as Google itself is about to finish its beta process for Q on the Pixels. But on OnePlus's end, the company has implied that participants will need to temper their expectations on when the OS upgrade will be finalized.
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